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UNCCD honours Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai

BONN, Germany, 13 October 2004
By planting trees, Wangari Maathai has protected hectars of soil from erosion, has secured sustainable energy supplies for the rural poor, and has safeguarded human rights. After three decades of afforestation, she has been awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her achievements in promoting sustainable development, democracy, and peace. This makes Wangari Maathai, who also serves as the Kenyan Deputy Minister of the Environment, the first African woman to win the award.

"We welcome the decision of the Nobel Prize Committee to base its approach on a holistic concept of security and stability. A healthy environment is a precondition for peace and stability," said Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). "Wangari Maathai succeeded in protecting the global environment, especially soil and water. But more importantly, she strengthened the basis for a holistic and integrated approach to sustainable development".

Already in 1977, Wangari Maathai founded the environmental group "Green Belt Movement". At that time, the effects of deforestation started to pose serious problems in Africa. As stated in a United Nations report of 1989, for every 100 trees that were pulled down on the continent, only nine were replanted. As a result, soil and water quality diminished dangerously in rural areas, hitting the poorest most as they depend on forest wood as an energy source and building material. The Green Belt Movement has reforested more than 10 million trees since, and provided a source of income and environmental education for women and girls from villages across Kenya. Today, Wangari Maathai holds a position as a visiting professor at Yale University´s Global Institute for Sustainable Forestry to help advance much-needed knowledge about soil degradation and sustainable land management.

"I am working to make sure that we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance," Ms. Wangari Maathai said when being informed the Nobel Peace Price was awarded to her. This prize is a recognition of the many efforts of African men and women, who continue to strive despite all the problems they face". Wangari Maathai´s private ceremony of the award took place where all had started. In her home town Nyeri, 160 km East of Nairobi, where she planted the seedling of a "Nandi flame tree", an indigenous Kenyan tree.

The Green Belt Movement has been amongst the first NGOs to seek accreditation with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. It has been accredited to the UNCCD since 2001. It promotes the objectives of the Convention by organising indigenous tree planting projects on public lands and environmentally degraded hot spots. It also provides training to enhance farmer's knowledge about environmental protection, on local biodiversity of crops and their role in food security. In particular, farmers are taught how to practice zero-grazing and organic farming.

Note to Journalists: For more information about this news release, please contact UNCCD Press Office : (49-228) 815-2847 - email: press@unccd.int